Last week I shared how the Wellington Phoenix are struggling to secure a sponsor, any sponsor, for their women’s team. This seems unbelievable at a time when women’s sport is smashing it. This week Michael Long at Sports Pro Media shared an in-depth look into both commercial partnerships and digital content of women’s sport. As Michael poetically describes, “if the overly saturated, often conservative and highly politicised world of men’s sport is awash with immovable juggernauts, multinational corporations and long-established relationships, women’s sport is a comparatively dynamic, fast-growing ecosystem of high-growth start-ups and entrepreneurial founders willing to think differently.”
He profiles female-focused sports media ventures that use digital platforms to live stream matches and share content so that it’s easily accessible. This includes live streaming women’s sport, for free, on existing platforms like Twitch, YouTube or using their own platforms, plus being a hub for all the associated content like podcasts, interviews, match reports and profiles.
Sky Sport have a YouTube channel, Sky Sport Next, where they live stream a lot of content for free, but is touted as being for the “non-mainstream” sports. How about rejigging this to be more empowering for a start, and having a platform dedicated to women’s sports that has a page for each sport, embedding Sky Sport Next’s video into the website, with bios, profiles and content on the same page, close at hand. I know there’s a market for this because it does not exist in Aotearoa, it’s taking off in the U.S., and Michael helpfully profiles the businesses in this space to learn from. And if anyone says there isn’t a market, there are the 1 billion people who watched the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup who will all be looking for one place to go to for all their tournament info for 2023. With women’s sport only making up 15% of sports media (in an Olympic year), there is a lot of space to grow! Anyone else keen?
This also ties in with commercial partnerships. A dedicated platform and digital content provides an endless array of creative and innovative options for engaging with fans and athletes. But that means approaching commercial differently from the current “copy and paste model”, which focuses on one, large (evidently elusive) sponsor who hands over a wad of cash for promised “eyeballs”. How about a suite of like-minded businesses, all chipping in together? Michael discusses The Angels FC, the new U.S.-based NWSL team launched by a high-profile team including Natalie Portman and Abby Wambach, who have secured their three key sponsors a year before the team is even set to compete. In line with their values and philosophy as a club, their commercial partnerships stipulate that a portion of the money they receive from their partners is shared with local causes. Awesome!
Make sure you check out Michael’s story to find out where to watch some of the top U.S. women’s sport in action for free, including the NWSL which has a number of Kiwi players involved. And check out Sky Sport Next this weekend for the first round of the adjusted Aotearoa women’s football not-quite-national league, Central vs Capital at 2pm on Saturday and Canterbury vs Southern at 2pm on Sunday.
This week it was revealed that after months of public pressure regarding their sexist uniforms (you remember the story, the women have to wear bikinis and the men wear board shorts), the International Handball Federation quietly changed the regulations. Except it’s not much better. The regulations now say, “female athletes must wear short tight pants with a close fit” while male athletes can still wear regular shorts as long as 10cm above the knee “if not too baggy”. If it still says short, tight, and close for just the women, that’s still not equal!
Speaking of uniforms, this week the women’s and men’s Wellington Phoenix teams and the NZ Breakers were given a powhiri by the Ngāti Pōneke Young Māori Club as they flew out of Wellington Airport to Australia ahead of their respective campaigns. It was disappointing to see the women’s team not in branded gear like the men were. I appreciate the logistics of getting two teams to Australia is challenging, which was the reason given, but there are other important considerations. If the Wellington Phoenix want to attract a commercial partner for their women’s team, they might need to think about how much value it looks like the club is giving their women’s team, as well how this potentially makes the players and staff feel. Let’s be honest, this would never, ever, happen to the men’s team. A solution would have been found, like having 20 branded t-shirts available in Wellington for the team to wear for public appearances. Like almost every women in sport, I’ve been wearing too big-men’s kit for sports uniforms since I was a teenager and men’s sized shirts for work at sports organisations because they didn’t make women’s cut, or “we don’t order a size small because the men’s team don’t wear size small”. I’ve even had a man’s suit tailored to try and fit me because they didn’t do women’s suits, which when trying to accommodate hips is a real treat. So while it’s something I’m used to, I promise you, each time this happens to me it has an impact on how much I feel valued by that club or organisation.
Finally this week, a must read is Jacinda Thompson’s essay in The Spinoff on her battle for accountability by making public the historic abuse she received from a priest. She says she is often told she is “brave” for coming forward. And as she points out, she should not have to be. Jacinda outlines the process she went through, including with the church, the Human Rights Commission, the police, and, like most organisations, the process is not survivor-centric. It is grim reading but essential for a first-hand account of what it’s like to go through that process and gives some big clues on what needs to change.
In herstory this week, in 2007 Clayton Cosgrove replaced Trevor Mallard as Minister for Sport and Recreation, Aotearoa hosted the inaugural U-17 FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2008, in 2018 an employment lawyer says our sport culture needs a reset, and in 2020 a 13 year old girl was barred from playing in a boys rugby league tournament, while women’s football was being paused in the U.K. due to Covid while the men kept playing.
Check out all the media headlines in women’s sport for the week of 5th November right here.
Alida Shanks 